


sound of your voice

by bog gremlin (tomatocages)



Series: nonsexual intimacy prompts [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Caretaking, Galaxy Garrison, Gen, Implied/Referenced Abuse, M/M, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Post-Kerberos Mission, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Reading Aloud
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-19
Updated: 2020-07-19
Packaged: 2021-03-04 22:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25384063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tomatocages/pseuds/bog%20gremlin
Summary: Before Kerberos, Keith sometimes used to read out loud to Shiro. After they become paladins, Shiro finds that Keith hasn't quite given up the habit.
Relationships: Keith/Shiro (Voltron)
Series: nonsexual intimacy prompts [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1838314
Comments: 4
Kudos: 94





	sound of your voice

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SashaDistan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SashaDistan/gifts).



> Nonsexual intimacy prompt: reading aloud ([originally posted on twitter 6/13/20](https://twitter.com/boggremlin/status/127200932689973657))

Sometimes, when Shiro was muddling his way through a repair on the hoverbike, he’d ask Keith to read aloud to him. It was pretty straightforward: the first time it happened, Shiro needed the directions narrated to him, since he couldn’t fix the goodman filter, and keep the page open, and hold the flashlight steady. (This was why Matt was always talking about the elegant utility of headlamps, but Shiro had standards.)

Keith had acquiesced, as he generally did when Shiro asked him for something. Shiro tried not to ask for anything as a result, because he wanted Keith to feel safe. It was bad enough that Keith kept showing up with a black eye, or a bruised cheek, or a limp that took days to shake. Shiro didn’t want to be the one who backed Keith into a corner.

But this — reading out loud from a manual while Shiro cursed and tore a fingernail while he wrestled with getting the bikes fixed before his allegedly free time deserted him once again — was small enough, and Shiro was irritated enough, that he didn’t think it through. 

“Page 516-B,” he snapped. 

There was a pause, then Keith started reading. He stopped whenever Shiro let out a particularly filthy swear, for breath. (Shiro had long given up on setting a good example, especially after the time Keith had bemusedly corrected the vulgarity of a rather vehement epithet.) Then he’d continue on, until Shiro had managed to cram the panel back over the filter.

“Thanks,” Shiro managed.

“Sure,” Keith said. But he started reading aloud to Shiro unprompted after that: he’d read aloud the application forms for the Kerberos mission while Shiro did push-up after push-up, or he’d read the mess hall specials off the public announcement board while Shiro dug in his pockets for enough change to eat out of the vending machine instead. It was nice, but not in any way you’d notice: more like having a really intuitive personal digital assistant, one that could anticipate your needs without being overbearing. 

That all changed late one night when Keith sat huddled on the floor of the room Shiro shared with Matt, refusing to tell them who was responsible for the bruise blossoming darkly against Keith’s side. It was an old argument, one Shiro hated, and one Shiro knew he would keep losing.

They nagged Keith almost to the point where he looked liable to skulk off and disappear from classes and meals for the next couple days. He'd done that before: lying so low that one of the adjunct staff had almost filed a missing persons report, before realizing there wasn’t any next of kin to notify. That particular heartbreak was avoided only because Matt draped himself across the threshold of the door, blocked off the exit, and melodramatically pitched a paperback book in Keith’s direction. Keith caught it — there was nothing wrong with his reflexes. 

“Fine,” Matt proclaimed, loud enough that Shiro could barely hear how he was clenching his jaw, “if you're not going to tell us what happened, then tell me a _good_ story!”

The book was one of the novels Matt’s little sister had read for summer homework the year prior. Matt was firmly of the belief that children’s literature was more comprehensive than any of the ethics readings assigned by Garrison staff — times like this, Shiro was hard-pressed to find him wrong — so he always had a few texts lying around, for pleasure and for making a nuisance out of himself. It was the Holt way.

Keith, grateful for the out, picked up the book and scanned the first pages before beginning: “ _‘Makoons open his weak eyes, blinked, and saw himself as he used to be.’_ ”

He kept reading, until his voice went scratchy with exhaustion and he fell asleep, leaning against the spare pillow Shiro propped on the floor next to him. Shiro put Keith in his own bed, and laid on the floor next to the mattress, awake for longer than he really should have been. He didn't know why he bothered to keep watch; no one would come for Keith here. 

Matt and Shiro left for Kerberos before Keith had a chance to finish the book. Matt shoved the paperback into Keith’s hands at the farewell party before the launch, and secures a promise that Keith would catch up with the two of them so they could finish listening to him read the story. 

“Yeah, whatever,” Keith says, but he shoved the book into the inner pocket of his uniform jacket. Paper was expensive; Keith was terrible at accepting gifts, or promises. Shiro had plans to work on that. 

But the mission doesn’t go according to plan.

Later — much later — after they’d been on the castleship for weeks and time had lost the little meaning it'd held during Shiro's captivity, he stumbled out of his quarters, intent on patrolling the halls. Maybe, this time, he could out-walk his nightmares.

Instead, he found Keith perched on the arm of the couch in the common area, Pidge hanging upside-down off the cushion beside him, Hunk and Lance tangled up companionably at the other end. Keith had Matt’s sister’s old reading assignment open in his hands, and he was reading aloud. 

Keith had a nice voice; Shiro’d always liked hearing what he had to say.

After a moment of watching the odd little tableau, he made his way over to the couch and sat beside Keith, and craned his neck to see the illustrations over Keith’s shoulder. 

No one made any fuss. Shiro closed his eyes.

“ _‘“You’ve earned the right to sit and watch your plants grow,” he said to Nokomis,’_ ” Keith read. He was quiet, and everyone held their breath in order to listen. “ _‘She was so old now that everyone claimed her as their mother and grandmother.’_ ”

The book was not long enough to last the whole time Shiro feared they would remain in space; but that was a worry he could set aside for the time being.

**Author's Note:**

> Keith is reading [_Makoons_ , by Louise Erdrich](https://birchbarkbooks.com/louise-erdrich/makoons).


End file.
